• DOROTHY CHRISTINA ADKINS
• ANNE ANASTASI
• NANCY BAYLEY
• LUELLA GUBRUD BUROS
• FLORENCE LAURA GOODENOUGH
• GERTRUDE HOWELL HILDRETH
• MAUD AMANDA MERRILL (JAMES)
• THELMA GWINN THURSTONE
• LEONA ELIZABETH TYLER

DOROTHY CHRISTINA ADKINS (1912-1975)

 B.Sc., Ohio State University, 1931 Ph.D., Ohio State University, 1937

Dorothy Adkins is best known for her work in educational measurement, particularly in the area of achievement tests.  She has published extensively in the field of measurement, and her books include Construction and Analysis of Achievement Tests (1947), Factor Analysis of Reasoning Tests (1952), Test Construction:  Development and Interpretation of Achievement Tests (1960), and Statistics (1964).  Dr. Adkins has had a varied career; in the first decade after she received her doctorate, she worked in tests and measurement activities for the University of Chicago, the U.S. Social Security Board and the U.S. Civil Service Commission, where she served as the chief of the test development section.  She then joined the department of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as department chair.  In 1966, she became the Director of the Center for Research in Early Childhood Education at the University of Hawaii.  She has been the President of the Psychometric Society, President of the APA Division of Evaluation and Measurement and President of the North Carolina Psychology Association.
 

ANNE ANASTASI (1908- )

A.B., Barnard College, 1928  Ph.D., Columbia University, 1930

Anne Anastasi has made numerous contributions to the literature in the field of mental testing, most especially with the four successive editions of her book Psychological Testing, which appeared in 1954, 1961, 1968, and 1976.  She spent the first twenty years of her professional career at Queens College in New York before moving in 1951 to Fordham University, where she remained until retirement.  Dr. Anastasi has been awarded honorary doctorates from Windsor University (1967), Villanova University (1971), and Cedar Crest College (1971).  She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and served as that organization's president in 1971-72.  She received the 1977 ETS Award for Distinguished Service to Measurement.
 
 

NANCY BAYLEY (1899- )

B.S., University of Washington, 1922 M.S., University of Washington, 1924 Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1926

Nancy Bayley's primary contribution to measurement was in the field of infant intelligence.  Her work in this area led her to develop the California First Year Mental Scales (1933) and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (1969).  The author of numerous books and articles in the field of child development, Bayley spent most of her professional life at University of California at Berkeley with a ten year interim at NIMH.  She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and was recipient of that organization's Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in 1966 and of the Stanley Hall Award of the APA Division of Developmental Psychology in 1971.
 
 

LUELLA GUBRUD BUROS (1901-1995)

Columbia University, Teachers College; Rutgers University; and Ohio State University.

Luella Buros was a very talented woman. Her early career was in the field of art and she was a recognized artist, with paintings exhibited in many of the top art shows and galleries. However, as a devoted wife and helpmate to Oscar Buros, creator of the Mental Measurements Yearbook and Tests in Print series, she realized that Oscar needed her assistance in order to fulfill his life mission: providing candidly critical evaluations of commercially available tests. So she gave up her active career as an artist to join Oscar in his crusade to protect the public and the public interest.

Luella and Oscar worked side by side on the work of the Institute. When Oscar died in 1978, Luella made sure that The Eighth Mental Measurements Yearbook, which was in the final stages of production at that time, was completed. Then she sought a new home for the Buros Institute so their work could be continued. But her support of the field of assessment did not stop when the Institute was transferred from Highland Park, NJ to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Luella continued to provide support, this time in terms of money to help the new Institute get started and Oscar's extensive library of measurement books to start a reference library.

Over the years, Luella continued her devotion to the Buros Institute and the field of assessment. She has made generous gifts to the Buros Institute to provide funds to support the Oscar K. Buros Library of Mental Measurements, a library that probably has the best test collection in the world. She has provided a major financial contribution to expand the scope of the Buros Institute by creating the Oscar and Luella Buros Center for Testing. By her vision and financial support, the Oscar and Luella Buros Institute will be a major center for assessment education, research and service. In addition to her financial support, Mrs. Buros' moral support for the continuation of the Buros tradition deserves mention. She was absolutely committed to improved testing practices and has served as a real inspiration to the Buros staff.

In 1995, Luella Buros was recognized her significant contributions to the field of assessment by receiving the Association for Assessment in Counseling's Exemplary Practices Award.

FLORENCE LAURA GOODENOUGH (1886-1959)

B.Pd., Pennsylvania State Normal School  B.S., Columbia University, 1920 A.M., Columbia University, 1921

Ph.D., Stanford University, 1924

Although best known for her "Draw a Man" test, Florence Goodenough published extensively in the measurement field. Beginning in the late 1920's she was among the first to document the effects of environment on intelligence test scores.  Her many books and articles included The Measurement of Mental Growth (1931), and Mental Testing:  Its History, Principles and Application (1949).  Dr. Goodenough spent virtually her entire professional career at the Institute for Child Welfare at the University of Minnesota.  She was a fellow of the American Psychological Association and was president of the National Council of Women Psychologists in 1938.  She is presently listed in Watson's directory of the outstanding contributors to the field of psychology.
 
 

GERTRUDE HOWELL HILDRETH (1898-1984)

A.B., North Central College, 1920 A.M., University of Illinois, 1921 Ph.D., Columbia University, 1925

Gertrude Hildreth is perhaps best known for her development of the Metropolitan Readiness Tests and for her contribution to the Metropolitan Achievement Tests, both widely used in schools today.  However, many no longer recall her monumental Bibliography of Mental Tests and Rating Scales, published in 1933 and 1939, the latter covering a 50 year time period and over 4,000 titles.  She issued a supplement containing an additional 1,000 items in 1946.  Dr. Hildreth was a psychologist with the Lincoln School at Teacher's College, Columbia for over 20 years before moving to Brooklyn College, where she remained until retirement.  She was a fellow of the American Psychological Association and was President of the APA Educational Psychology Division in 1949.  Her papers are in the ETS Archives.
 
 

MAUD AMANDA MERRILL (JAMES) (1888-1978)

B.A., Oberlin College, 1911 M.A., Stanford University, 1920 Ph.D., Stanford University, 1923

Maud Merrill is best known for her extensive work on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.  Beginning in 1926, she and Lewis Terman collaborated on the first revision of this instrument, which was a monumental task that took eleven years to complete; the two forms of the revised version were initialed L and M, after the first names of Dr. Merrill and Dr. Terman. Twenty years later, after her retirement, Dr. Merrill herself constructed a second version of the Stanford-Binet.  Dr. Merrill spent her career entirely at Stanford University, where she established a psychological clinic for children.  She also served as a consultant for the Juvenile Court in San Jose and wrote a book on delinquency.  Her other publications include Measuring Intelligence:  A Guide to the Administration of the New Revised Stanford-Binet Test of Intelligence (with L. Terman, 1937) and Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale:  Manual for the Third Revision Form L-M (1973).
 
 

THELMA GWINN THURSTONE (1897-1993)

A.B., University of Missouri, 1917  B.S., University of Missouri, 1920 A.M., Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1923

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1926

Thelma Thurstone's major work was in test construction and the factor analysis of mental abilities.  With her husband, L.L.Thurstone, she contributed to the factorial studies of intelligence which occupied the measurement world for a number of years and is co-author of the Primary Mental Abilities test and the Learning to Think curriculum materials designed to increase the mental abilities of children.  Dr. Thurstone was a test developer with the American Council on Education from 1924 to 1928.  Later she directed the Division of Child Studies for the Chicago Public Schools until she moved to the University of North Carolina in 1951.  She became director of the Psychometric Laboratory there in 1955.  She was a fellow of the American Psychological Association.
 
 

LEONA ELIZABETH TYLER (1906-1993)

B.S., University of Minnesota, 1925  M.S., University of Minnesota, 1939 Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1941

Although best known for her work in individual differences, Leona Tyler has also contributed to the measurement field with her widely used book, Test and Measurements (1979).  Her other books include The Psychology of Human Differences (3rd edition, 1965), Intelligence:  Some Recurring Issues (1969), Individual Differences:  Abilities and Motivational Directions (1974), and Individuality:  Human Possibilities and Personal Choices in the Psychological Development of Men and Women (1978).  Dr. Tyler has spent virtually her entire career at the University of Oregon.  She was a Fullbright lecturer at the University of Amsterdam in 1962-63, and received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota in 1963.  She served as the President of the American Psychological Association in 1972-73.

Written and researched by Gary Saretzky. Information on Luella Gubrud Buros prepared by Barbara Plake.   Web page created by Tracy Smith and Tim Corlis.  For Feedback or comments, please contact Tracy Smith at  tsmith#064;ets.org.